http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2010/09/new_wave_of_oil_comes_ashore_w.html

By Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune
September 12, 2010

A new wave of black oil suddenly came ashore west of the Mississippi River on Friday and Saturday, coating beaches and fouling interior marshes, according to anglers’ reports. Ryan Lambert, owner of Buras-based Cajun Fishing Adventures, said about 16 miles of coastal beaches in Plaquemines Parish from Sandy Point to Chalon Pass were lined with black oil and tar balls. Meanwhile anglers returning to Lafitte told Sidney Bourgeois, of Joe’s Landing, that new oil was surfacing on the eastern side of Barataria Bay in the Bay Jimmie, Bay Wilkerson, and in Bay Baptiste areas.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries confirmed the following oil sightings in Plaquemines Parish on Friday:

— Half mile of oil located in the marsh of an unnamed marsh island on the southwest side of Bay Jimmy.

— One-mile-long by 20-yard-wide area of tar patties located in West Bay 2.15 miles northwest of Outlet W-2.

— Large area of 6-foot to 12-foot-diameter tar balls locate in Scott Bay 0.8 mile north-northwest of Double Bayou.

— A 2,500-foot-long by 300-foot-wide area of heavy oil sheen with surface oil droplets and submerged oil located offshore 0.85 mile west of the Southwest Pass East Jetty.

“It’s just suddenly came up Friday and it’s along the beach for mile and miles, and drifting inside in some spots,” Lambert said. “There were quite a few dead red fish on the beach, and just thousands of dead pogies (menhaden) inside the bays. And there a really big areas of sheen right off the beach.
“Everyone thinks this is over, but it’s not — not if we can still get soakings like this.”

Special thanks to Frank Jackalone, Senior Field Organizing Manager/ FL & PR
Sierra Club, 111 Second Avenue, Suite 1001
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
(727)824-8813 frank.jackalone@sierraclub.org